


Unite and Conquer

by misura



Category: Eureka
Genre: Multi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2007-08-07
Updated: 2007-08-07
Packaged: 2018-01-25 04:42:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,471
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1632134
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/misura/pseuds/misura
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Nathan has got a cunning plan, that may or may not turn out to be best-laid.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Unite and Conquer

**Author's Note:**

> Written for Miss Pamela

 

 

"You're not getting anywhere, are you, Sheriff?" Nathan had gotten pronouncing titles as if they were insults down to an art - one of the many useful tricks he'd picked up in Washington, because you really couldn't call the President a 'stupid moron' to his face and keep your job and/or your funding.

To give credit where credit was due, Carter at least seemed aware of it - although on second thought, he might only be reacting to Nathan's inquiry with a glower because it came from Nathan.

"Actually, I think we're making great progress on this case," Carter said. "Thanks to your help," he added, which was actually a fairly good attempt to needle Nathan a bit, because it definitely wasn't as if it was Nathan's job to assist Carter and help him solve cases. Nathan was smarter, more powerful, richer, better-looking; he had Carter outclassed in all aspects of life, and yet here Carter was, waltzing into his office, acting like Nathan'd got nothing better to do than answer his questions.

"Any time." Nathan smiled the friendly smile of the brilliant scientist, always happy to explain the basics of his trade to the dumb and the ignorant. "But actually, I was referring to my wife."

Carter looked wary. Allison wasn't accompanying him today - possibly because she and Carter had had a falling out, but probably because she was busy with something for the D.O.D.

"Allison?" A greater man would put something more into that name, a little extra to counter Nathan's 'my wife' (possessive pronoun followed by possessive noun) but Carter just said it like any name, like it wasn't any different from 'Fargo' or 'Henry'.

"I know her better than anyone, you know." He'd thought he did anyway - there was a stack of papers lying in a drawer somewhere to prove him wrong.

"Better than she knows herself?" Carter snorted. "I don't think so."

Did anyone really know himself? Nathan had a vague recollection of having spent an evening (well, night) discussing that question with Henry - the only time he'd ever gotten drunk in company. He'd talked about Allison; Henry'd told him about Kim. Nathan didn't recall if he'd felt smug at having succeeded where Henry had failed; if he had, he supposed that was one more point for Henry - not that Nathan was keeping score or anything, or wished Henry would give up whatever project it was that made him blow up the roof of his garage five times a week. He'd been done with Henry years ago - soon, he'd be done with Allison, too, and then there'd be nothing left but his job, and bickering with people who barely had half his IQ.

"You could do with a few pointers." That much was true, at least. "I could give you some." That much was true as well. Nathan was only stating quantity, not quality.

Carter grimaced. "Yeah, you could. But you won't. Nice one, Stark, but not as if I didn't see it coming miles away. Well, I'm done here - see you next time one of your employees tries to destroy the world. Probably in a day or two."

Nathan considered pointing out that none of his employees had ever tried to destroy the world - his theoretical superiors in the D.O.D. in Washington might have flirted with the idea sometimes, but no employee of Global Dynamics suffered from that kind of delusions. That was what the psychological tests during the job-interviews were for. Ambitions for world-domination were acceptable - ambitions for world-annihilation were not.

Carter was already at the stairs though, and Nathan didn't want to act as if he wanted Carter to hang around any longer than he had to. Besides, Carter was right - he'd probably be back here in less than a week. Nathan could wait that long.

x

"What's the emergency?" Carter demanded, storming into Nathan's office less than twenty-four hours later, not quite panting after his rush up the stairs - Nathan guessed Fargo's Douglas Adams-inspired experiment with 'smart elevators' might have put Carter off using them for a while.

"Emergency?" Nathan asked, reclining in his chair and keeping himself entertained by picturing Fargo's reaction when he discovered he was no longer able to watch Buffy while inside Global Dynamics, or look at any Buffy fansites, or read any Buffy fanfiction. (Someone at Tech Support was still working on something to keep Fargo from writing it. Nathan suspected a few flames would do the trick quite nicely - the world could do without the fruits of Fargo's literary labors anyway.) "What emergency?"

"The one Fargo called me about?" Carter gave him an annoyed look. "What's gone wrong _now_?"

"Nothing. I just thought we might continue our conversation of the other day," Nathan said. Actually, he'd told Fargo to pump Carter for some more details on how he liked living with SARAH, but that could wait - Fargo was busy taking his laptop apart, anyway. By the time he'd have whined long enough at someone to help him put it back together again, Nathan would be long done.

"Well, that sure sounds like the end of the world's coming up." Carter's smile was a little nervous.

"A sense of humor. Allie likes that." Nathan toyed with the idea of adding: "And by the way, I'm not some nano-technology constructed look-alike; I'm the real, not-influenced-by-pollen Nathan Stark," but all things considered, it seemed likely to have the opposite effect of the one he'd intend.

"Why don't you simply get to the point, and tell me what you want?" Carter proposed. "Then I can tell you 'no' and we can both go back to doing our jobs."

"Sit down." Nathan gestured. It was easy to sound a little tired after three hours of sleep. "Now, contrary to what you seem to think, Sheriff, this isn't about you. Or about me."

"Okay." Carter's tone said he wasn't buying anything of that statement.

"This is about Allison," Nathan said. "I want her to be happy." The first three words of that, Nathan knew to be true. The last three ... maybe. Nathan wasn't a saint, but he was a realist - he knew Allison'd been happy with him at least some of the time. She'd married him, after all. "If you're what makes her happy, then I can accept that." No, he couldn't - but let Carter believe that, if he was able to.

"You don't like me."

"I don't have to." If he'd stop to analyze his dislike for Carter, Nathan wondered, how much of it would be due to Allison, and how much due to Carter being Carter? Ninety percent? Fifty percent? Not zero percent, at any rate. And when he wasn't trampling all over safety-protocols and snooping around where he had no business snooping around, Carter actually wasn't too bad at his job. Not a scientist, of course, but, well, Nathan got a little tired of the company of scientists sometimes, anyway. Henry was the best of the lot, and he spent most of his time at his garage, mucking about, making notes on paper like he'd gotten stuck in the previous century. "Allison does; that's enough."

"This just doesn't sound like you at all," Carter complained. "I mean, what's in it for you?"

Allison, Nathan hoped. "Peace and quiet," he replied instead. "I have a job to do here. Now, unlike some people, I can keep my professional and my personal life separated, but this ... thing between you and me and Allie - it's making things difficult for all three of us." Taking a deep breath, Nathan took the last plunge, the ace he'd kept up his sleeve so far. "Allison and me - we're not going to get back together."

If he had to, he'd sign a set of divorce-papers to back up his bluff - after making sure they'd be invalid, naturally. He was sure he knew a few people in the right places who still owed him a few favors.

"Look, Stark." Carter seemed at a loss for words. "I appreciate what you're trying to do here - accepting things aren't going to turn out all right is one of the hardest things there is. I know that from personal experience." Ah yes, Carter was divorced - and Nathan definitely hadn't almost slipped and thought about Carter being divorced _too_. "But offering to help me get together with your wife, that's just ... I can't accept that kind of help. It wouldn't be right, or fair."

US Marshall's honor at work, Nathan supposed - not that this wasn't exactly the reaction he'd hoped for.

"Allison would be the first to tell you I never take the easy way," Nathan aimed for 'wry' and leaned his elbows on the table, giving Carter a look that he hoped would be mistaken for a sincere one. "This is important to me, Carter. On your own, you might make it. Maybe in two years, maybe in three. Maybe longer. Then again, maybe she'll move away next month. Maybe they'll offer her a posting somewhere else. If she's got nothing to keep her here, she might leave - and no offense, but right now, you're nothing to her." Allison lived in Eureka - she'd lived here longer than Nathan had, and Nathan very much doubted that she was ever going to leave. Carter didn't have that certainty, Nathan betted.

Carter sighed and made an effort to slump in his seat, failing only because the seat was designed to keep people from slumping or slouching or doing anything else to annoy Nathan - except talking, which was generally enough to get Nathan annoyed, regardless of his visitor sitting perfectly upright.

"All right," Carter said. "And thank you."

Nathan managed to keep from smiling until after Carter'd left, his place taken by Fargo who'd come up with a new idea for a project he should be allowed to work on - a self-diagnosing laptop, which could assemble itself, rather than rely on the memory and expertise of humans - and who seemed to have completely forgotten about the interview he was supposed to have with Carter, which was just as well.

x

"This is a surprise," Allison said, glancing at Nathan before staring at Carter. Any other moment, Nathan would have found that unpleasant - as it was, he put a polite smile on his face.

"I - that is: _we_ brought some wine." Carter was nervous; his hands were almost shaking. Nathan wondered if it was something he said during the briefing. He hoped so; the last thing he wanted was Carter showing too much initiative, ruining Nathan's carefully laid plan.

"So I see." Allison reached out and Carter handed her the wine. Their hands touched and lingered ever so briefly. Nathan forced himself not to turn away, or burst out laughing, or make a comment. "Why don't you come in - both of you."

Nathan inclined his head, as much in thanks as in acknowledgement of the jab - yes, he knew that he had no right to assume he'd be welcome here. Carter's coat was accepted and hung; Nathan did it himself.

"I hope this isn't another crisis," Allison said, starting the conversation on a positive note. The bottle of wine had vanished into the kitchen, where it had somehow been transformed into three cups of coffee.

Nathan sipped some coffee and left it to Carter to answer that question. Carter utterly failed to do so.

"I mean, the two of you together - that must be something fairly serious," Allison prodded. Nathan could tell she was getting slightly worried, but he also caught a glimmer of annoyance in her eyes.

"Oh, we're not actually - " Carter started, at the same moment Nathan began to say: "We just happened to run into each other in front of your house," which was an obvious lie, but also one that implied several important parts of what Nathan wanted Allison to think of as the truth.

They looked at one another - Carter's expression a little sheepish, Nathan's calm.

"No crisis," Carter said, turning back to Allison. "This is just a social call, strictly non-business."

Allison threw Nathan a pointed look, which he pretended not to see. "I'm glad to hear that. How is Zoe doing?"

"Zoe's fine," Carter said, painfully obvious about his relief at being offered such a neutral subject. "Well, actually she's been complaining for the last two weeks about being made to sleep in a tent during the camp, but I think me and SARAH managed to convince her it wasn't going to be all bad."

Allison smiled. Carter inquired after Kevin. Nathan considered taking a short nap.

x

"I can't believe he fell asleep," was the next thing Nathan heard. It was Carter's voice.

"Politeness has never exactly been Nathan's strong point." Allison's voice, that.

"Fargo told me he practically lives in his office - he's probably exhausted." Carter almost sounded like he felt sorry for Nathan, which was just ridiculous. "Maybe you should - "

"I should - what?" Allison's tone was sharp. "We've been separated for over a year, Jack. His work always came first even when we still *were* married, anyway." It was the wine talking, Nathan told himself - except that they hadn't had any wine, just decaf. "Nathan never listens - to anyone."

"Sorry." Jack sighed. "It's just that ... it's late. I'd better go - would you happen to know where I can drop him off? I mean ... he doesn't live here, with you, does he?"

"Why don't you just kick him and wake him up?" Allison said.

"If he fell asleep in the middle of a conversation with _you_ , I figure he really needs it," Carter said. "And, come on, Allison, look at him."

First names, Nathan realized, his mind still a bit foggy. Carter and Allison were addressing one another by their first names. He wasn't sure if that was a good thing.

"I look at him and all I see is my ex-husband." Allison's voice was hard.

"You don't mean that," Carter said.

"Why are you doing this?" Allison demanded. "What happened to suddenly have you acting as if he's your best friend? He's not, Jack - he doesn't even like you."

"Funny, he told me the same thing." Carter chuckled. Nathan thought Carter sounded a little uncomfortable; he still hadn't figured out that he wasn't _getting_ mixed up in something that should be kept between Allison and Nathan - he already was in the middle of it.

"He told you I don't like you?"

"No, he told me _he_ didn't like me," Carter incorrectly recalled. "And that it didn't matter. He _cares_ about you, Allison - he really does."

"He sure has a funny way of showing it," Allison said.

"Okay, so he's an idiot," Carter agreed easily. "Look, some people just find it hard to let other people know how much they love them. Me and Zoe - we argue. A lot. About everything - stupid things, really, like dinner, or clothes, or, well, anything. You name it, we've argued about it. But that doesn't mean I don't love her. Because I do. To me, Zoe's the most important person in the world."

Nathan knew he wasn't the idiot here; that dubious honor definitely went to Carter, telling Allison that another woman was the most important person in his life. True, it was his daughter, but ... given a choice between saving Callister and saving Allison, Nathan knew he'd pick Allison, however reluctantly and however much the choice would hurt him. Of course, the situation was fully hypothetical - even more so now that Callister was already gone, more certainly out of his reach than Allison or Henry ever had been.

"You're a good man, a great dad. Zoe doesn't know how lucky she is," Allison murmured.

"Neither did Stark, until he realized he'd lost you," Carter said. "Don't you think he deserves a second chance?" (Last name, Nathan noted - bad sign, that, perhaps.)

"I don't think so, no," Allison said. "I know him, Jack. Yes, maybe he really is sorry. Maybe he really wants to try again and actually make it work this time. But it won't. He's not the kind of person who can give me the life that I want - the kind of _family_ that I want."

She'd told Nathan Kevin was enough for the moment - that she didn't want another child that would force her to divide her attention between the two of them. Nathan had respected that wish, the way he'd respected her silence about Kevin's father and what had happened to him. He'd been afraid that if he pushed, he'd have pushed her away, never realizing that the actual problem had been his not taking enough of an interest, rather than his taking too much of one.

"I'm sorry; you're right, it's none of my business," Carter said, once again proving his memory was a whole lot less than reliable. Nathan found that a bit worrying in a servant of the law.

"That's not - did you hear what Beverly said about me during that time when we all went a little bit crazy because of Seth's pollen?"

"Not really. I was a bit busy at the time." Nathan had been busy, too - and he supposed that for all her pretty words about needing him, Allison hadn't exactly been pleased to find him near the artifact instead of, say, on her front-porch with flowers and an apology in writing.

"Oh." Allison sounded surprisingly ... not pleased by that. "Zoe's away on camp right now, isn't she? So that means there's not really anyone who's waiting for you back home, is there? Well, except for SARAH," she amended. Nathan wondered if this was going where he thought it was going.

"Yeah. I'd better be home before eleven, if I don't want to get locked out of my own house." Carter, clearly, was clueless - another worrying characteristic in a sheriff, in Nathan's opinion.

"There's an extra bed in one of the guest-rooms. I think Nathan can sleep there," Allison said, and it occured to Nathan that pretending to be asleep was a great strategy right now, for all that it rankled a bit to be used in Allison's passive-agressive seduction of Carter.

"You - were you going to ask me to stay the night?" Nathan'd have applauded, except that Carter's insight came a good ten seconds too late, besides of which Nathan was supposed to be asleep.

"If I were, would you have said 'yes'?" There was something wrong with the grammar in that sentence, Nathan thought absently, curious if Carter'd noticed Allison wasn't asking him outright. Probably not.

"Well, I mean, you're ... gorgeous. Smart. Funny."

"Is that a 'yes'?" Allison inquired.

"Yes, it's a 'yes'. But - " Carter said.

"A 'yes, but' is not a 'yes'," Allison declared. "You pick him up - I'll show you the guest-room."

Nathan discovered he found the idea of Carter carrying him a little disturbing - not to mention unlikely to be anywhere near as easy as Allison made it sound.

"A 'yes, but' is still a 'yes', Allie," he said, opting for something a bit more intelligent than "I'm awake, so please keep your hands off me.".

"Oh good, you're awake," Allison said, sounding unsurprised. "Now you can both leave."

"We could also both stay," Nathan pointed out.

"I don't think so," Allison said.

"A threesome," Carter said.

Nathan blinked. Allison flushed. Carter opened his mouth, and closed it again.

"Something Henry said," Carter explained. "It didn't make much sense at the time, but I think I'm beginning to understand what he meant. That secret Beverly told everyone about you - it had something to do with me and Stark didn't it?"

"It doesn't take a genius to figure out that much," Nathan mumbled. One of these days, he was going to be having a good, long talk with Henry.

"There's a difference between a wishful fantasy and real life," Allison said.

"Mostly, fantasies are impossible in practice, while real life's just impossible in theory," Nathan commented.

"Which is why you're not ruling the world," Allison told him.

"Which is why you should consider having us both stay over," Nathan riposted.

"Jack, can't you see he's only using you?" Allison appealed to Carter.

"What are you suggesting, that I'd kick him out the moment you'd fallen asleep?" Nathan asked.

"I'd like to see you try," Carter said.

"No, you wouldn't," Nathan informed him pleasantly. "I've got back-up, remember?"

"I've got Jo and Taggart," Carter reminded him. "You want to bet which side would win?"

"This is just ridiculous!" Allison burst out. "You're not going to fight over me as if I were some ... some _thing_. If anyone's going to get kicked out, I'll be the one doing the kicking."

"You can still back out if you want to, you know," Nathan told Carter.

"I don't think so," Carter replied.

"Oh, fine - you can both stay. I'll worry about my sanity tomorrow morning," Allison said.

 


End file.
